Biaxial tensile behavior of the reactive powder concrete

Synopsis: Numerical and experimental studies of Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC), reinforced by short steel fibres, under biaxial tensile loading are reported. A semi-analytical model using the Eshelby's method of inclusion to describe elastic fields perturbation is employed to predict crack nucleation under biaxial tensile strain. A criterion of crack nucleation is investigated theoretically by considering a locally oriented mass of fibres embedded in an homogeneous matrix. An original biaxial cruciform specimen is designed and fabricated by a systematic testing program guided by the results of a numerical simulation. A prototype machine names ASTREE (developed by SCHENCK/LMT) is used in the biaxial test of cruciform specimens. An adaptive control test method was designed, and digital image correlation is employed to obtain the displacement field and the microstructural stress concentration. These preliminary observations support our theoretical analysis based on Eshelby's inclusion and aims at a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the RPC damage process.